Nine students at a Telangana social welfare residential school at Ramayampet in Medak district were bitten by rats while sleeping in their hostel on Thursday night. This comes only days after a lizard was found in the food served to students at a model school in the same area.
While officials at the school said all the children — students of Class 9 — are safe and have been sent back to the hostel after being treated at the area hospital, the incident has left the children shaken, especially as this is not the first time that they faced rodent menace on the campus.
This incident, latest in a string of such cases reported from state’s residential hostels in recent months, has raised a concern about unhygienic conditions at these facilities.
Acting on the rat menace incident reported at the social welfare residential school in Ramayampet, Collector Rahul Raj served notices to teachers of the 9th class on Friday.
The Collector served notices to teachers seeking their explanation as 12 students of the 9th class were bitten by rats. As the current principal was on sick leave, the Collector appointed Physics teacher M Padma as in-charge principal as an immediate measure.
Following the directions of Rahul Raj, the officials have carried out cleaning of the hostel premises, and pruning of trees besides filling all the holes in the hostel.
The management also placed many glue pads to catch the rats.
Meanwhile, the Collector also directed the mandal-level officials in the district to inspect the welfare hostels regularly to take stock of the situation.
